On July 4, 1899, paleontologists on a two month dig in Wyoming discovered a large dinosaur requested by Andrew Carnegie for Pittsburghâ€™s Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Carnegie had discovered the existence of this dinosaur while reading a story about the â€œMost Colossal Animal Ever on Earth Just Found Out West.â€ Carnegie mailed the article to William Holland, the director of his museum in Pittsburgh, which was a mere three years old and consisted of three rooms in the Pittsburgh library, and told him to buy one for the museum.

Holland assembled a team to dig up one of this creatures. Among them was William Reed, the paleontologist who claimed to have found the creature. After being offered $10,000 for one, Reed admitted that he had never actually found one of these creatures, just one of its bones. So they spent two months digging in Wyoming for one before they found it in July of that year. They named it Diplodocus (meaning â€œdouble beamâ€ and referring to the creatureâ€™s backbone) carnegii (after Andrew Carnegie).

The Diplodocus carnegii was one of 18 other complete dinosaur skeletons to be taken apart 2 years ago and sent to the Phil Fraley Productions in Paterson, New Jersey for cleaning. Over the last few months, the bones have been shipped back in wooden crates to be reassembled for the museumâ€™s new exhibit called â€œDinosaurs in Their Worldâ€ set to open in November. Diplodocus will be the highlight of the exhibit.

Diplodocus is 150-million-years-old, from the late Jurassic period and considered the longest land animal at 84 feet and weighing 11 tons. It was a herbivore (plant eater) that swallowed leaves whole and then ate stones to help its food digest. They traveled in herds and laid their eggs as they walked. They were lizard-hipped and had a long neck and a whip-like tail. It also had an elongated snout with nostrils on top of its head. It had one of the smallest brains and was of the least intelligent dinosaurs. Its gaping size and fascinating history will make it debuts once again in November.
For related articles, visit http://www.prehistory.com/diplodoc.htm and

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